WingSpan (Taken on the Wing Book 1) (18 page)

“Sire Lev waits for me,” he tilts his head. “Tawny will take care of you for a while.”

“No!” she shouts, her panic escalating.

“I’ve shared your fear and confusion for hours. You feel safe now but I know you’re scattered inside.”

Shadow nods and she distracts herself by curling her fingers, exploring his feathers with their tips. Then she notices her bite and looks at him in horror.

“It’s not infected and it doesn’t hurt. I’ll explain later… tell you anything you want,” then he tugs at her chin again.

“Tawny has a very beautiful and generous spirit. There are few I would leave you with besides her. I feel you from anywhere in the eyrie. If you worry at all I will tear my way through the stone walls to get to your side.”

“Sire Lev, a pleasure!” Tawny announces herself without kneeling, bowing or even looking at him. Only the oldest living creature on the planet does whatever she damn well pleases. It’s where Cloud gets the loose tongue Tawny tries so very hard to reign in. “And Master Soar I presume. You’ll pardon if I don’t kneel.”

“Tawny,” Lev says simply but she’s already well past him.

Tawny is positively ancient. She wears traditional trousers and tunic and her thin white hair flows down her bone straight spine. Her wings are held just a little too high. If asked she claims it’s arthritis that prevents her from moving them to any other position but Talon has seen her angry and she can use them to intimidate with the best. Behind her, Cloud manages to get one knee nearly to the ground before dashing to Tawny’s side.

Talon turns Shadow around and takes his place at her right, the position of her protector. He doesn’t need to make any oath to proudly stand in her defence. Shadow tries to get closer to him, hesitant with the newcomers but a firm hand on her hip tells her to stay put. Then taking Tawny’s hands he drops to his knees before her earning a suspicious eyebrow.

“Well, Talon,” she mutters sternly. “What does all this sucking up mean? Nobody bows to old Tawny anymore.”

“And you can be assured I won’t,” he bites out, only because she tires of rote respect and will appreciate some attitude from one of her favourites. “I present my mate, Royal Dame Shadow of the Vancouver Island Eyrie and daughter of Sire Lev.”

Tawny laughs, followed by a grunt as she leans heavily on Talon’s hands to get to her knees. Cloud gets down as well.

“Dame Shadow,” Tawny winces and looks suspiciously at Lev though the twinkle in her eye tells Talon she appreciates the surprise. “Lev?”

“Sire Lev,” Talon tries to remind her.

“Talon,” Shadow whispers as she takes Tawny’s wrinkled hands and starts to help her up. “I can’t believe you made her get on the ground for me!”

Cloud takes Tawny’s elbow and between the two of them they get the old gryphon upright.

“Talon, attend,” Lev calls.

Talon turns to say something to Shadow but her glare is enough to send any sensible gryphon running. She’s stooped over brushing dirt from Tawny’s knees.

“I am the oldest living thing on the planet Talon, son of Stalker, mate to Royal Dame Shadow of the Vancouver Island Eyrie. How dare you have the pinfeathers to put me on the floor?” Tawny calls using his full name. “I hope her good manners rub off on you!”

But Talon has already taken position at Soar’s left wing as they stomp down the tunnel. Shadow is in good hands with Tawny. He’s certain she’s angry with him but faced with someone she perceives as more vulnerable, her single minded focus already heals the cracks in her shaken courage.

Chapter Sixteen

“Slow down, child,” Tawny mutters though when Cloud does Shadow still has to work to keep up. The air grows humid and warm as they descend through the black tunnel. Shadow clings to Tawny’s elbow hoping to keep her upright on the uneven surface but she’s as steady as the stone on which Shadow stumbles.

“How do you see where we’re going?” Shadow asks breathlessly.

“Our eyes have no trouble in the dark, child,” is the curt answer. “And yours won’t either when you take wing.”

“Is it true she’s never taken wing?” the young voice ahead of them asks.

“Manners, Cloud,” Tawny answers. “She’s right here.”

“I’m not a…” Shadow starts unsure how to finish. Angel? Gryphon? Both work. Somebody has to come to their senses about what she is and she has the discomfiting suspicion it’s going to be her.

“Is she crazy?”

“Cloud!”

“Yes, Tawny,” Cloud answers with an appropriate amount of teenage tolerance. Shadow’s not sure if the two of them are really arguing or if it’s simply banter but it’s probably better to let them have at it.

The tunnel takes a tight left and the welcome silvery glow of a lit room ahead gives Shadow reason to relax. Never a big fan of the dark, she’s held her breath as much as she can and is nearly as winded from the descent as she was from the uphill run with Torrent. A shiver works its way down Shadow’s spine as Arden’s reassurance he’ll stay clear gives her a little boost of bravery.

“Tawny, I’m sorry Talon made you kneel,” Shadow exhales with her first full breath.

“A gryphon never apologizes, child,” Tawny says firmly as she points to a pool on the far side of the room. There are several along the wall and Shadow notes a winged gryphon in one. Steam and the laughter of children rise from the splashing water. “You may acknowledge a poor choice but never apologize. This is the warmer bath used by children who have not yet taken wing. The others would be much too cold.

“Quickly, let’s get you out of these horrible clothes,” she whispers as they near the bath. “I don’t want her to see you dressed in these.”

Shadow hesitates. The fabric may be rough and dirty but its protection is as much emotional as physical. Heavy and black, they let her think she can fade into the dark.

“Come now, child,” Tawny tries. “If you’ve got anything under there I haven’t seen in all my years then you
must
show me.”

Shadow drops the rough pants then pulls off the shirt before sitting on the cool stone to swing her legs over. The hot water stings her knees where the fabric chafed. Shadow hisses as the heat sinks too deeply into the small of her back where Torrent pinned her down with his knee. As her bottom finds a natural shelf she notices the water moves past from one end of the bath to the other.

“Tahhneee!” a small voice bursts out and Shadow turns just in time to see a naked toddler shimmy from the other bath and take off toward them in an awkward run. He’s wingless, little fists pumping at his sides.

“Echo,” Tawny says calmly though she braces herself against the edge of Shadow’s bath. The boy speeds up, arms wide and with a bound more coordinated than expected for his age plants one foot on a stone and flies into the old woman’s arms. Once caught, he squeals as Tawny spins twice before leaning again on the stone tub.

The woman wrapped herself and the other child in very human cotton towels before letting the little girl run to Tawny. Her towel is around her waist and her upper body is covered in a gold bikini-slash-halter-top. Its straps run over her shoulders merging to a single chain between her wings before splitting again and reconnecting just tight enough to keep the sparkling front in place.

“Echo,” Tawny says again. “I introduce Royal Dame Shadow.”

As quickly as he was in her arms, Echo is on one knee and tugging the little girl from the tip of Tawny’s wing.

“Like this Mist,” he says as he pushes down one of her knees and pulls up the other, which makes her the opposite of how he’s doing it.

“But I don’t see a shadow!” Mist complains as Tawny repeats her introduction to the woman. As she drops she places a firm hand on the shoulder of each of the children silencing their voices but barely stilling their squirming.

“Dame Shadow,” she says. “Welcome to Jasper.”

Mist breaks free and tackles Echo.

“It looks like you have your hands full,” Shadow offers as the mother scoops them up and rattles her raised wings. Both settle down as drops of water fly from their dame’s glossy feathers.

“They are as healthy and strong as their proud sire,” she says, her chin rises and Shadow senses the woman’s pride in them as well.

“They’re beautiful,” Shadow adds. They both have their mother’s curly black hair and dark brown eyes and if they had little wings they’d look like chubby cherubs.

“I’m beautiful!” Mist squeaks as the woman stands, tickling them to stop the wrestling.

“We have interrupted the Dame enough,” she tells the children and with a nod she takes her children aside to dress.

“Cloud, fetch my basket, child,” Tawny orders as the woman disappears. “I wasn’t expecting anyone down here at this hour. Had she seen you dressed like a prisoner she wouldn’t have stopped to listen and I’m not certain Cloud and I could have held her back.”

“From what?” Shadow ducks her head under the water as Tawny holds out shampoo.

“Attacking you.”

Shadow looks into the black tunnel to make sure the woman is gone.

“Dames are very protective of their young. She is the only gryphon in the eyrie who won’t have heard your story but she is the first to meet you.”

“How am I a dame? I don’t have children.” She looks to the side at Cloud. The girl stands with her arms crossed, putting on an air of boredom. In spite of finding the man she believes is her father this place isn’t Shadow’s life and she wants to go home, sure she can work something out with Terry’s apartment that is still so heartbreakingly full of him.

“You are a capital D Dame,” Tawny explains as she dumps a bucket of water from the upstream side of the pool over Shadow’s head. She’s rolled up her pants and sits on the edge with her feet in the water. “You are the hereditary leader of Lev’s eyrie and figurative dame to all who live there or call it home. You sit higher than he does and when the time comes Talon will take Lev’s place. I sat in the high seat here for many years until my mate passed. It would have been inappropriate for me to rule alone or with my daughter’s mate at my side so I stepped down and passed rule to Sher and Arden. Their daughter would have eventually taken Arden’s seat but she passed nearly a hundred years ago so the seat will go to Torrent’s mate if the boy ever gets around to finding a royal to be his.”

“Oh,” another bucket knocks more questions loose than suds as Shadow’s stomach rumbles, the sound bounces to their ears repeatedly even in the soft bubbling of moving water. Shadow can grasp the mutual misunderstanding which led to her captivity but even without being kidnapped by Torrent she feels there is something rough and cruel about him.

“Dinner last night,” she mutters in answer to the sound of hunger. So much has changed since then, even more than the previous week where she’d seen a woman grow wings in Mark’s kitchen just before she ran off to be captured by the gryphon she only imagined she’d hurt.
And when did I start thinking of them as gryphons?

“Cloud?” Tawny calls. “Fetch Dame Shadow something to eat.”

“I have studies,” she replies like she’s talking to herself and Shadow feels a scratch in her throat. The only thing that will clear it is to agree with her.

“Child,” Tawny growls. “A meal for Dame Shadow, her belongings and some appropriate clothes. And since when are you interested in your studies?”

Shadow opens her mouth to say that her school is more important but Tawny places a hand over her lips and after a moment the strange throat scratching urge fades. Cloud rolls her eyes and starts to stomp toward the tunnel.

“Cloud,” Shadow says, revolted at the thought of her last dinner. “No meat, please.”

The girl stops, turning on her heel and addressing only Tawny.

“She’s having fun with me!”

“Cloud,” Tawny snaps, shaking wings flared wide as she pivots on her bottom and takes a few intimidating strides toward the teen. Shadow backs slowly to the far side of the pool where the current is a little faster and rests a hand on the ledge to keep from drifting sideways. “If Dame Shadow says no meat then no meat. You may use the internet if the task is beyond you but be certain I will check the logs.”

“Okay,” Cloud exclaims and runs from the room, wings and red locks flying behind her.

“Might I—”

“Make an observation?” Tawny interrupts and offers Shadow a bath puff and some expensive body wash from the basket. “I’m certain it’s nothing I’m unaware of.”